9-year-old steals car, drives 4 miles before being stopped

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WEST BEND - It started at a West Bend boat dealership with an extraordinary sight: 911 callers reported a car theft with very unlikely suspects:

Caller: "This one kid pulls up on a bicycle and another pushing a scooter. The little kid's gotta be five!

Dispatcher: So like a five and eight year-old?

Caller: Yeah!"

It ends up the driver was nine, his passenger and brother - four. The nine-year-old boy was trying to get to his grandma's house. 18-year-olds Kaiden Duck and best buddy Andrew Gonring spotted the weaving car two miles into the boy's trek. They guess the car was going more than 70 miles an hour.

"I thought it was a drunk driver, said Kaiden Duck. "I thought the person was on drugs or something."

Although in separate vehicles, they both realized pretty quickly the driver was a small boy. They said he could hardly see over the steering wheel.

"It's a shock because once we realized it wasn't an adult driving drunk, we pull up, we're like how did you get this car?, said Gonring. "How do you know how to drive much less?"

The teens followed the boy along State Highway 144, finally boxing in the car to stop it. Amazingly, there were no injuries or damage to any of the vehicles.

"I wasn't going to let no little kid go into the ditch or into the river."

Duck said he took the keys from the young driver and ordered him in the back seat. He said the young driver told him he learned how to drive from his father.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office and West Bend Police department do not plan to file any charges against the children, but they do plan to do some follow-up checks with the family of the children.

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